Second International E-Waste Day aims to raise public awareness of e-waste

Following its success in 2018, the second International E-Waste Day will be held on 14 October 2019 to promote the responsible recycling of electrical and electronic equipment throughout the world.

International E-Waste Day was developed by the WEEE Forum, an international association of e-waste collection schemes from 29 countries. It encourages users to consider the responsible management of their end-of-life electronics through repair, reuse or recycling, helping to divert valuable resources from landfill.

As the WEEE Forum’s only Australian member, ANZRP will again be promoting its flagship e-waste recycling program TechCollect to communities across Australia and New Zealand.

This year TechCollect is celebrating an important milestone, having recently surpassed 160,000 tonnes of e-waste collected and recycled since its inception in 2012. This represents an environmental net benefit equivalent to planting almost one and a half million trees, or a reduction in annual electricity usage equivalent to 162,000 Australian homes.

“ANZRP-TechCollect is committed to collaborating with the electronics industry, government, community and most importantly its members to deliver outstanding environmental outcomes,” said Warren Overton, ANZRP CEO.

“As Australia’s only not for profit Co-regulatory Arrangement, our value proposition is to deliver best practice e-waste collection and recycling services in Australia and New Zealand.”

According to the UN, only 20% of global e-waste is recycled each year, meaning 40 million tonnes are either placed in landfill, burned or illegally traded and treated in a sub-standard way. This is despite 66% of the world’s population being covered by e-waste legislation.

Warren said the use of technology and demand for electronic devices will only continue to rise. “By 2020 it’s predicted that there will be 25-50 billion devices connected to the internet.

“While we encourage users to extend the life of their machines wherever possible, we recognise that efficient takeback programs and responsible recycling will be key to keeping materials in the value chain for as long as possible,” he said.

In 2018/19 Australia’s e-waste recycling target was 64% of all estimated available e-waste, and will rise to 80% by 2026/27. In Europe the target from 2019 will be 65%.

WEEE Forum Director General Pascal Leroy said, “The volume of e-waste is continually increasing and contains many valuable as well as hazardous materials that should be recovered or properly treated when items are discarded.

“While consumer awareness of how to dispose of e-waste correctly is improving, it is still a struggle to ensure that e-waste is collected and treated by organisations with the correct facilities and channels, thereby guaranteeing that this is done so in a legitimate, safe and environmentally friendly way.”

The WEEE Forum’s 36 member organisations will drive the initiative, inviting participation from businesses and individuals across the world to raise the public profile of e-waste.

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